The idea of Peyton Manning playing for a team other than the Colts in 2012 seems like a lock after all the back and forth between Manning's camp and Jim Irsay in Indianapolis this week. One team that's always mentioned as a possible landing spot for Manning is the Miami Dolphins, and over the past two days, the notion of Manning's gotten revved up a little bit.

There's a report Sunday from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, where Jackson writes that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is "infatuated with the idea of signing" Manning.

Adding fuel to the fire is a report from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the Dolphins are on the "short list" of teams that Manning has interest in, if/when he leaves the Colts.

The marriage makes sense: Manning owns a condo in South Beach so he's familiar with the area. The Dolphins have a decent set of weapons headlined by Brandon Marshall and Reggie Bush. Miami already has a good defense.

Much still has to unfold with Manning, and the pursuit of No. 18 could potentially blow up in the Dolphins face. Manning could be released as late as March 8; free agency begins on March 13. If Ross and Jeff Ireland chase Manning and fail to get him, Packers backup and would-be free-agency cash cow Matt Flynn could sign elsewhere.

That's not a situation that will make anyone's heart flutter in South Beach.

When new Dolphins coach Joe Philbin was asked during his introductory news conference Friday how he was dealing with the death of his son while experiencing his biggest triumph as a football coach, Philbin answered by telling a short story of what his life has become since 21-year-old Michael drowned in an icy Wisconsin river on Jan. 8.

When Philbin flew home to Green Bay from Miami after interviewing for the first time with owner Stephen Ross and general manager Jeff Ireland about two weeks ago, he said he was “at 30,000 feet in the air and felt great about things.”

Then, his son died and “we had a beautiful service eight days ago,” Philbin said. “I can’t tell you how touched we were as a family by the tremendous outpouring from the community.” He coached in the Packers loss last week vs. the Giants, and afterward, he said he felt dejected with what had happened to his life.

“I came home Sunday night and the TV hadn’t been on for a week,” Philbin said. “I don’t know, maybe the Dolphins had already hired a head coach. I talked to my son, Tim, and he asked me what the Dolphins were doing.

Said Joe: “I have no idea what they’re doing.”

“You’re going to go after the job, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You’d better go after that job. Your son, Michael, would have wanted you to go after the job.”

And that immediately changed Joe Philbin’s perspective. Snapped him, for the time being at least, out of his funk. “That,” he said, “was the start of me getting back and getting moving again.”

Amazingly, in the presser, Joe Philbin then laughed.

"This family is like the Griswold’s,” Philbin said, referring to the National Lampoon Vacation movies. “We’re an all-in family. We have heart and soul in what we do. We’re excited about coming to south Florida. We’re going to get down here and get immersed in the community as quickly as possible.”

WINNERS

Jeff Fisher: Stop us if we're being too obvious, but the dude straight cleaned up, you guys. We don't have contract details yet, but Mike Freeman's already reported that the Dolphins feel "used." If that's the case, Fisher's getting a pile of money from the Rams and the word on the street is he'll be picking his own general manager. He got everything he wanted and more when he became the top candidate in the coaching candidate class, even if he's not worth it.

Mike Zimmer: As Albert Breer of the NFL Network notes, Zimmer now moves to the front of the Dolphins coaching list. He's previously worked with 'Fins general manager Jeff Ireland in Dallas, and could be a good fit in Miami. He's also getting mentioned for the Buccaneers gig (and will interview with Tampa Bay), which means the Dolphins might feel a need to hurry things up on Zimmer and get something done, which could land him his first job as a head coach. At the very least, he has leverage now.

Carolina Panthers: When Jay Gruden pulled out of the running for the Rams gig, it looked like Fisher picking the Dolphins could really open up the door for St. Louis to hire Panthers offensive coordinator Rod Chudzinski. Instead, Chud's primary option is to bolt for the Bucs, which seems less likely.

Gregg Williams: Williams is doing just fine with the Saints now, but his contract's up and there's a decent chance he bolts to work with his old boss in Tennessee. It's not like he was going to get canned from New Orleans (we don't expect him to anyway), but now he has leverage with both the Saints and Rams and could potentially pick the job he wants. Or, if New Orleans wanted to move along after a bad defensive year, Williams wouldn't be burnt. Plus, if he can turn around the Rams defense, he'll likely parlay that into another head-coaching gig.

Mustaches: Fisher's got one a stash that's strong enough to grow icicles, store lunch for later and generally support the weight of a pint of Guinness head. Him patrolling the sidelines for an NFL football team only enhances the manly allure of lip fur.

LOSERS

Stephen Ross: For the second year in a row, Ross' Dolphins have come in second place while chasing a big-name coaching candidate. Last year it was Jim Harbaugh (how's that working out for the 49ers?) and this year it was Fisher. At least this time Ross wasn't already employing a coach when he went chasing after a big name.

Stan Kroenke: If the reports that Fisher doesn't have a contract are true, um, WUT? Why would Kroenke let himself get in this situation? No general manager, a coach who "picked" him and no agreement with that coach in place other than "you get power"? Doesn't this mean Fisher kind of runs the negotiations on his contract and salary from here on out?

Jeff Ireland: Whether or not the rumors about Fisher demanding power are true is irrelevant, because they're out there, and that means it looks like, to many people, that the Dolphins front office is a bit of a mess. (The "Carl Peterson might be running his own coaching search" rumors don't help much either.)

St. Louis Rams: Oh yeah, we went there. Though it's entirely possible that Fisher will be a good hire and he'll lead the Rams back to respectability quickly, St. Louis is still going all in on Fisher at this point. What if they're wrong and just handed a pile of cash, the power to select a general manager and a long contract to a guy who only won 10-plus games six times in his 17-year career with the Titans? Oh, right. They did just do that.

Justin Blackmon: Given that the Titans only once used a first-round pick on a wide receiver (1998, Kevin Dyson), it would be somewhat surprising to see them pull the trigger on Blackmon at No. 2 overall. Obviously this can change depending on how he works out and what sort of trades emerge, but Fisher's spent a lot of picks on defense during his days in Tennessee.

LeBron James: Because one of Fisher's highly-publicized choices was the Miami area, everyone and his brother will now use the line "Take his talents to St. Louis." It won't ever die, LeBron.

A day after the Raiders fired Hue Jackson after just one year as head coach, we have our first candidate to potentially replace him.

According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, that person is Dolphins interim coach Todd Bowles.

Bowles, who was Tony Sparano’s assistant head coach and secondary coach, led the Dolphins to a 2-1 record in Sparano’s absence (while putting a scare into the Patriots), but he hasn’t gotten much play as the possible permanent replacement (Jeff Fisher can probably be blamed for that).

The reason for the Dolphins’ apparent disinterest might lie in this quote from general manager Jeff Ireland during the Sparano-is-fired presser: "You're looking for the best candidate out there, a guy who has been in the trenches before. You're looking for some of the same qualities I saw in Tony -- a tireless worker, a guy who understands offense and defense. We'll talk about those things as the weeks go by, and exactly what we're looking for, and iron out a plan that best fits what Mr. (Stephen) Ross is looking for."

Considering Bowles has spent his NFL coaching career as a secondary coach, he probably isn’t the fit for Miami, even with his successful three-game stretch running the team. He’s already interviewed for the job, but even if Fisher accepts the Rams position, the next Dolphins coach probably will be somebody other than Bowles.

While teams have begun making moves on Black Monday to fire their failing coaches, the Dolphins are gearing up to find Tony Sparano’s replacement. Here’s the statement the team released Monday afternoon, in the words of general manager Jeff Ireland.

"Steve Ross and I have a plan in place that is designated to insure that we identify and interview an outstanding set of candidates for the head coaching position. The process will be thorough, it will be in compliance with NFL policies, and provide the best possible result for the franchise.

"That search has begun and there is no designated timetable; it will be conducted in a manner that give us the greatest opportunity to hire the individual we feel is best suited to become the team's head coach. Steve and I are excited to embark on this process, and we are confident that it will result in the selection of an outstanding individual who will return the Dolphins to their long-time status as one of the most successful team in the league."

Joseph and Paul raised $1,500 to fly a banner over Sun Life Stadium during the Dolphins final home game of the season that will read, "Mr. Ross, save our Dolphins. Fire Jeff Ireland."

The money for the banner was raised by readers of the site and Twitter followers which is, well, kind of amazing.

"We just put it out there on Twitter, and the next thing you know it snowballed like crazy," Joseph told Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post. "This afternoon we put up a Paypal link, and within four hours we met our goal, just purely on donations. We're just overwhelmed by people's anger."

It's really all so touching isn't it? Unfortunately (for drama's sake anyway), the plane won't be able to fly over Sun Life during the game. There's a air space restriction that only allows the banner to fly up to an hour before the game.

But that's not slowing Joseph and Paul down -- they're having an "airplane watch party" while tailgating.

Unfortunately for the duo it looks like, based on Stephen Ross' actions, they're also going to have a "watch Jeff Ireland draft" party in the next couple of months too.

That's according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, who reported on Sunday afternoon that as of right now, Sparano is out at the end of the season, though GM Jeff Ireland is currently slated to stay on with the franchise.

Per Salguero, the team is "adamant no final decision has been made" regarding Sparano's future, but the reality is that they do intend to let the coach go following the season.

The logic behind canning Sparano and keeping Ireland is pretty obvious: owner Stephen Ross believes the roster's chock-full of talent (thanks to Ireland's assembly) but has been underachieving (thanks to Sparano's coaching).

What's interesting about this, though, is that if Ross truly wants to chase a big-name coach in the offseason, he may face an issue with personnel control. It's believed that Ross would love to land either Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden in Miami, but both guys might demand more personnel control than what's offered if the team's under Ireland's control.

There are plenty of other candidates out there that won't demand control over what players are on the roster, of course, so it's not like Ross can't land a good candidate this offseason, provided he knows what he's looking for.

The real key may be whether or not Ireland believes that Matt Moore is the quarterback of the future as that will change the way Miami approaches the draft and free agency with respect to the availability of signal callers.

And, of course, if they think Moore's the guy, he actually needs to be the guy.